Patriarchal fallout: Kisii widows tell of anguish
Widow Robina Kwamboka, 65, at her home in Metamaywa, Nyamira, on January 28, 2022. Kwamboka’s in-laws are dispossessing her of her matrimonial property.
What you need to know:
- Some, particularly those who did not go through female genital cutting, are ostracised and hounded out of their matrimonial homes because they are sometimes not considered as ‘total women’ to inherit their husbands’ estates.
- Indisputable empirical evidence shows that the death of one’s husband marks the beginning of doom for a widow and her children, besides the grief due to his demise.
Widows in Kisii are routinely subjected to deprivation, harassment and disinherited of their property by in-laws.
Some, particularly those who did not go through female genital cutting, are ostracised and hounded out of their matrimonial homes because they are sometimes not considered as ‘total women’ to inherit their husbands’ estates.
In this densely populated community, indisputable empirical evidence shows that the death of one’s husband marks the beginning of doom for a widow and her children, besides the grief due to his demise.
The worst cases are those where the widow has no son(s). She is hounded out of the home like a criminal and banished on claims that she had no children to inherit property, even when she has daughters.
Victims’ agonies
Heart-wrenching stories abound about widows being told pointblank by their in-laws that they are persona non grata.
A 51-year-old widow and mother of eight told the nation.africa how she has suffered unending woes in an eight-year fight to have her children inherit their father’s property.
Ms Jane Bosibori Okemwa’s story is a microcosm of the harassment and deprivation many widows undergo. Her husband, Johnson Okemwa Nyakundi, tragically died on September 30, 2014.
For her, seeking legal justice through the courts has not helped much either, because the orders given by judges have just remained so.
Mr Nyakundi had four wives, one of whom had died. Bosibori was the third one. She got into marriage when she already had three daughters. He sired five other children.
The husband was a businessman and farmer and had amassed wealth in Kisii, Nyamira and Nairobi. Soon after his death, the property, comprising cash, vehicles, shares, buildings, land and trees, soon became the source of division in his family.
Bosibori’s three daughters, now adults, have been denied their right to inherit their father’s property. Bosibori’s co-wife, Mary Kerubo Okwemwa and her son, Kepha Marita Okemwa, claimed that she had brought others from where she was previously married. They claimed the daughters had benefitted from the estate of her “first husband”.
But Bosibori protested, contending that the administrators had maliciously omitted the names of her three children.
“She deposed that when the deceased married her sometime in the year 1997, she got into the marriage with the three children, whom the deceased accepted and took in as his own and did not disown them,” reads Bosibori’s affidavit.
She further denied her co-wife’s assertion that she had been married prior to her marriage to Mr Nyakundi.
Justice Anthony Ndung’u, in his judgement dated July 29, 2021, said a child whom the deceased accepts as his own is taken to be his child under the law of succession, notwithstanding that he was not the biological father.
"The protestor has annexed an affidavit she swore jointly with the deceased on November 1, 2004, where they deposed that they were married and had six issues of marriage.
"She also annexed an affidavit sworn in 2010 where she and the deceased averred that their marriage had eight issues. These affidavits demonstrate that the deceased accepted all the protestor's children as his own, including the three she went into the marriage with,” said Justice Ndung’u.
“I, therefore, find that the deceased expressly accepted Mary Moraa Okemwa, Josephine Kerubo Maisiba and Lilian Kerubo Okwemwa as his children and they shall be treated as children born to him in wedlock.”
Justice Ndung’u said the deceased had four wives but he is survived by three widows as his first wife had died. He is also survived by 18 children and two daughters-in-law.
During interviews for this story by nation.africa some widows shied from speaking on record for fear of further retribution from their in-laws.
The cases depict widows’ struggles and how owning property in Gusii by widows is difficult. Police records indicate that close relatives are the main perpetrators.
Patriarchal setup
Customary practices in the highly patriarchal community generally grant women secondary rights to land, namely through their relationships to a male relative, making it difficult for women to inherit land in their own right.
While the 2010 Constitution gives women equal rights with men on inheritance of property within a family unit, this reality has yet to be embraced by the Abagusii community that remains culturally conservative and patriarchal.
A widow in Nyamira County, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, said her husband died in a tragic road accident in Nairobi. She and her children have been facing threats of eviction by an in-law who wants to grab her family land.
In another case, a former MP in Kisii died while in office, leaving behind a widow and a daughter. The widow has been fighting to protect her property as her husband’s younger brother is keen to disinherit her.
When the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights attempted to take up the matter some few years back, the widow requested them to go slow because the brother-in-law, who inherited her husband’s political seat, is “still powerful” and might harm her.
“They kicked us out of my matrimonial home. I now live on the property that I bought with my late husband. My daughter has completed her university education without any support from them,” said the widow, who lives away from the matrimonial home.
Another case is that of Ms Robina Kwamboka. Her kin, who had earlier dispossessed her of her husband’s property, now want her out of her matrimonial home. Having persistently resisted the move, some of her in-laws decided to raze her granary and fenced off part of her compound as a signal that her time in that home was up.
On enquiry, the in-laws said they were only trying to kill a snake. A few days later, a fence was erected around her compound while she was away, denying her access to her house and that of her son.
Despite all the troubles she has borne, and continues to bear, she believes her in-laws are not above the law as they claim. “All I want is justice. I need my husband’s share of land to sustain my two children,” says a dejected Kwamboka.
